Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1887-01-14
SHEEP VERSUS COWS.
valuable suggestions on Maintaining tb
Fertility of tho Soil,

| Valuable Suggestions on Maintaining the
Fertility of tho Soil.
Let no one for a moment suppose that
in pasturing either sheep or cows or in
feeding them solely on what is grown
upon the farm, any thing can be added
to the fertility of the soil. The animal
is not an originator, it is only machine,
and as such is run by outside influences.
1t has no means of getting any thing
outside OF what Is taken in its food.
Consequently there can be nothing in
its products or its excreta aside from
what is taken in-what is eaten or
drunk-and if this comes solely from
the farm, it contains nothing, except its
carbon, but what was derived from the
soil, and consequently the manure made
by its consumption can carry back to
the soil no element of plant growth not
originally there. On the contrary, even
with the best of care in saving and re-
turning to the soil every particle of the
manure, there is constant and un-
avoidable loss to the farm. This arises
from the abstraction from the food of
the nitrogen, phosphoric acid and
potash, which are requisite to the
formation Of flesh, milk, bones, hair,
wool, etc. When full-grown cows
are purchased and are kept for butter
making, and this is the only product
sold from the farm, nothing but mere
trace of anything beyond carbon and
hydrogen will be removed, and if the
milk be judiciously fed to full-grown
hogs for fattening purposes, nearly all
its nitrogen and other valuable ingredi-
ents will be left in the manure, and if
this be so saved that no loss occur by
burning of washing, and if all of it be
returned to the fields, but very little ex-
haustion of fertility should be the re-
sult-much less than when sheep are
kept. In sheep husbandry the profits
are made in raising and selling young
sheep, and in the growth of the animal
fleece. In both of these much plant
food is taken away in the shape of
bones, meat and wool, the constituents
of which are largely potash. phosphoric
acid and nitrogen, and even where the
practice is followed of buying full
grown sheep and fattening them for the
market, large growth of wool takes
place, and this is largely made up of
the most expensive elements of plant
growth.
So, while neither sheep nor cows can
of themselves add any thing to the fer
tility of the farm, it must be conceded
that if both are kept according to the
too commen method of depending solely
on the farm for what they eat, the cows
will be far less exhaustive where kept
for butter making alone. But, where
the milk is sold or taken to the cheese
factory, or to the butter factory, and
the skim-milk is not returned, the tables
will be turned, for in the milk, aside
from its butter, will be found in large
proportion the very elements of plant
food which go to make the carcass and
wool of the sheep, and in many dairies
the practice prevails of raising and fat
tening the calves. Where this is so,
then the exhaustion is much more rapid
with the COWS. But the wise farmer
whether keeping cows or sheep, will
supplement what is grown on his farm
both in summer and winter by the use
of bran, oil meal, corn meal and other
foods, which are rich in plant food and
which can be used at profit and when
he does so, either class of stock can be
kept not only without loss, but with
nm actual and constant increase of the
fertility of his farm, and of its product
iveness, as q matter of course.
When this wiser course is followed
there are some advantages in favor OF
the sheep, among which l will call at
tention to few: When running at
pasture the droppings of the cows are
mostly left in compact heaps, destroy
ing tho heritage upon which they may
be and fouling that surrounding for q
foot or more, so that no animal will eat
it, and, besides this, they are mostly
eaten by insects. The voiding, both
liquid and solid, of the sheep are more
easily and evenly scattered over the
ground. They are never wasted by
being eaten by insects, are never de-
structlYe to the herDa9c on winch they
fall or avoided by the stock. They
fall close to the ground, are readily
within the reach of the plant roots,
md are quickly made available in
Yowing fresh food, The treading of the
'heep is much less likely to poach the
s.ound or destroy the sod over which
hey feed. In winter, when confined in
s:ables, the liquid weddings from the
Acep are less copious than from cows,
sad are all quickly absorbed by the
iae solid droppings, thus making the
manure much pleasanter to handle and
naking their return to the field without
oss much more certain; and when the
tsock are kept in open yards, subject
u the rains and SHOWS, the difference in
lsvor of the sheep is still greater.
sheep will also work up the litter given
:hem much finer than will cows, and
thus make their manure more easily
handled. 1t can be scattered and
plowed under more readily, and be less
in the way of subsequent cultivation
Rural NeW Yorker.